The End

My final work day in Haiti was leisurely by the standards of my trip. We were building shelves for the Notre Dame/St. Croix hospital. I was working with Jim again. My job was to hammer, and boy did I hammer. By our count, me and three other volunteers knocked in over 2500 nails. My forearms were bulging and aching by the end of the day. Luckily, there was a tarp over our workspace, so I wasn't sweating too much and I didn't have to apply and reapply sunscreen.

The workplace was very interesting. There were goats and turkeys all over the place. We packed up at the end of the day and went back to camp. There was a palpable feeling of accomplishment for me. I had made it to the end, and I was fine. It was a long journey for me. The dysentary, the heat, the hard labor and the food all combined to provide quite a challenge for me.

There is a tradition at HODR (pronounced hoder) where volunteers who are leaving the next day get up and say goodbye. I stood up and expressed my thanks. Everything I had done over the past two weeks were all new experiences for me. It was very challenging, and I learned alot of new skills, and I also learned alot about myself and the limits that I can push myself too. I was sort of proud of myself, at least by my own personal standards (which aren't very high when applied to carpentry and manual labor).

Afterwards, we went to the bar and I had a few drinks to relax and reward myself.

The next morning, five of the volunteers shared a shuttle to the airport. It was about an hour and a hald journey. We got to the airport and it was a mess. It was raining and there was a huge line outside of the airport. I paid two Haitians to expedidte our position in line. They essentially acted as social fullbacks and plowed a way through the line. I guess that is how things are done in Haiti.

The airport was a scene of pandemonium and disorganization. I had to go through three security checks before I got onto the plane. It was very frustrating.

I got on the flight, and I was off. I had a short layover in Ft. Lauderdale and made my way to Philadelphia. My girlfriend picked me up at the airport and we went out to dinner with my parents to Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza in Horsham. I sat at the bar and reflected upon the fact that about 12 hours ago, I was in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Being in a modern American restaurant after that was quite profound.

We got pizza and I was only able to eat about two slices. My stomach had shrunk because of the lack of work it got during the trip. I am still unable to eat as much.

This was a very valuable trip for me, and I am lucky to have been able to take it. I work for a great company, and I owe alot to it for allowing me to do this.

With that said, I probably wouldn't do this again. Strike that, I probably wouldn't do it in Haiti again due to the heat. It was great to learn some new skills and learn alot about a culture that I was completely ignorant of.

Back In The Swing of Things

Today I woke up and felt, in the words of Larry David, pretty, pretty, pretty good. I had signed up the night before to do rubble at St. Martin. In the morning, people were coming up to me asking if I was the team leader. I said no, not that I knew of. They said "your name is in the first slot. The first slot means you are the team leader."

So, I was the team leader.

I think I did an ok job. We got to the site, and it was in a lot behind another house that we had to walk through an alley to get to. There was a creek behind the site. It was filled with trash. Kids were wading in it. Behind the creek, there was a farm. There were pigs and goats, and they were eating trash.

We got started with sledgehammers and bashed the home to bits. It was actually really fun. Everyone on the team took out whatever frustrations that they had on this home. We took the entire structure down and started to haul some of it out to the street to dump. We eventually ran out of room by the end of the day. There is alot more rubble to clear, but we don't have a spot to put it in, so we aren't going back tomorrow.

Tonight I signed up to build hospital shelves with Jim. I look forward to that. He's a good guy to work with. Additionally, it is my last day working at Project Leogane. I am very excited to come home. I've got alot of work to do when I get back to the office.

Tonight for dinner we had goat and hot dogs and white sweet potatoes. It wasn't bad, but I didn't like it much either.

Til tomorrow.

Another Day Lost

I woke up this morning feeling less than great, but I didn't want to spend another day laying in my bunk sweating. I went out back of the camp to help dig drainage trenches for the nursing school. It was literally the most ridiculous job that I've ever done.

Prior to my arrival, the Canadian Army had been leveling out the back field of the camp to construct two nursing schools. They did this by spreading and packing dirt and large stones. They didn't have the forethought to think that flooding season is quickly approaching and the buildings would need drainage.

So we were left to dig trenches. And we weren't digging up soft dirt. We were digging in hard dirt that was mostly large stones, so we had to go the length of the building perimter with a pick axe to loosen the soil up and then we could dig. I lasted about three hours doing that, and then my stomach bug kicked back in.

Another day in the bunk...

I didn't eat lunch, but I did have a Coke. It wasn't very cold, which was disappointing. But I was at least able to get some calories. I had a little bit of dinner tonight, which was more than welcome. I don't really care how I feel tomorrow, I can't stand being in my bunk another day. I signed up for a rubble crew and I'm going to get out there and work.

Two more days of work and then back to Philadelphia.

P.S.-Reason # 1,230 that I believe there is a God: Temple plays Cornell in the first round of the NCAA tournament at 12:30, which is ten minutes after my flight touches down in Ft. Lauderdale. My connecting flight to Philly leaves right after the game is over. Hopefully the Owls will win one or more games this year.

I'm Struggling...

...to find something positive to say about today, but my stomach bug has gotten worse. I laid in my bunk all day and eventually got up to get a shower. I eventually went into the office and sat down at the computer to check up on what is happening in America. As I was sitting there, three kids about 5 years old and younger game up to the gate that separates us from the community and they were asking for something. I didn't know what they wanted on account of my ignorance of Creole, but they were rubbing their stomachs. I eventually deduced that they wanted some water. Luckily, I had my water bottle on hand, so I reached it out of the gate as far as I could. I poured it into the smallest boy's mouth but it ended up going all over his face. He started cracking up and his two friends did too. It still amazes me how happy these kids are.

Joseph came to the camp tonight looking for me. I can tell he is very anxious to get the laptop that I am going to give him. I understand that he probably is insecure about whether or not he is going to get it because of how unpredictable his life has been. I understand the feeling of wanting something very badly and worrying about not getting it, so I empathize with him. He's probably never received anything like that before, and he has built up the importance of the laptop in his head. I just don't know how many times I can tell him that I'll do whatever I can to get it to him. I had to walk over to the Notre Dame clinic with him to get the email of a doctor that I had spoken with last week who said he could possibly set me up with a doctor in the states who is cycling in and out of the clinic. The idea here is that I send the doctor the lap top and then the doctor brings it to Haiti with him and gets it to Joseph. We'll see how it works out.

On the walk back to camp, a bunch of young girls approached me and repeatedly asked me "what is your name". I must have said Andrew 7 or 8 times before I just had to walk away, because I realized that "What is your name?" is the only English they knew and they were just going to ask me that over and over again.

I got back to the base and immediately stepped into the ring for round 2 of Andrew Monaghan vs. his stomach.

Now I am just sitting in the office listening to Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry play in the courtyard across from camp. So yeah, it really isn't that bad. But after the stomach bug, I am more than ready to come home. I've got three more days of labor and I leave on Friday morning.

I Should Have Known I Would Get Sick

Last night at dinner various people were talking about stomach bugs they got while in Haiti. I said, "I think I'll be fine, at least I have been so far."

I spoke too soon. I've got something right now, and it isn't very pleasant. I'll spare you the details.

Because of this, I had to take the day off. It hasn't been very enjoyable laying in my bunk in the sweltering heat. My only real interruptions are my intermittent trips to the bathroom. I took some anti-biotics. Hopefully they work.

I didn't have lunch today because I didn't want to add any fuel to the fire. I'll see how I feel around dinner time. I don't really have much to update given my sorry state. Hopefully I'll feel better by tomorrow so I can go out and do some work. Until then...

The Big Day Off

Today I woke up around 7am and I milled about for a while. I surfed the web a bit and then we got together a group of about 10-15 people to go to Jacksonville Beach. We all piled into a tap tap cab (a pickup truck that you ride in the back of) and headed off. The ride was uncomfortable because of the amount of people in the back. It was about a twenty minute ride. As we approached the beach, we passed a large estate that overlooks the water. It was almost completely collapsed. From the looks of the rubble, the place was probably pretty cool at one time, at least by Haitian standards.

The beach was covered with rocks and a dark brown sand. The water was a very light blue, and it was very nice to swim in. I took a dip for about ten minutes and then went to nap a bit on a big concrete block. We stayed for about an hour and then took a cab back. I was very hungry, so when we got back, I had an egg sandwich (egg, a healthy scoop of MSG, lettuce, onions, ketchup and hot sauce on a baguette) and a bottle of coke. I hung around the camp for a few hours. An Italian NGO came over to our camp for a game of basketball. I didn't play, but I did cook potatoes for the bbq afterwards. I didn't stay to eat because we went to a local restaurant to eat some conch. It wasn't much of a restaurant in terms of accomodations. It was essentially an open field with working generators and tents and some tables. The meal was not very impressive, but I did get to try conch. We took motorcylce taxis to and from the restaurant. Essentially, guys ride around the streets on motorcycles and you pay them for a ride. Me and another guy got on a motorbike and drove through what looked like people's backyards and open fields. There were cows and goats everywhere.

I'm back at the base right now facebook chatting with some folks. I've got a full day ahead of me tomorrow, although I am not quite sure what I'll be doing. I think I'd like to go back to the hospital site to work and catch up with Joseph. I look forward to the next post...

Day 5

Yesterday was really fun. I went to the same job site, but I worked on the fence around the hospital instead of the hospital. We were putting the paneling up. JT (another volunteer) and I were working with a crew of Haitians. I had been talking to Joseph (he's working with us) a bit throughout my stay, but we really talked alot yesterday. He's 26. He has a three year old daughter. He works for Hospital Sainte Croix. The hospital was destroyed during the earthquake. This is the hospital that we are rebuilding in a temporary state on a new site.

Joseph speaks English fairly well. He said his #1 dream is to come to America and live there. He has an uncle in Orlando. He told me that it costs upwards of $10,000 to hire a lawyer, etc. to get a visa to come over. He said that the lawyers are so corrupt that some of them just take the money and don't even work.

He said he will eventually come to America. He will not stop until he gets there. He was talking about how he needs a computer. I've got a laptop that I don't use, so I told him that I would send him mine. He then told me that last week he was asking God for some help (specifically a computer and a digital camera). Another volunteer gave him a used camera, so he got both of his prayers answered, I suppose. He was so happy. I can't describe how happy he was, because the English language does not have terms sufficient enough.

In the afternoon, we went and played with Haitian children in a field filled with cow-pies. We played duck-duck-goose and other games. The kids sang and danced. I've got a really funny video to post. I wish I had the bandwith to do so. I'll do it when I get back. The kids are so fun and happy.

We found a place that sells cheeseburgers. It is near the Canadian army base. We walked there during lunch. It was serviceable, but I wasn't impressed. I did get to have burgers and fries though, and that was a welcome respite from the Haitian food. I also had two Cokes.

Sunday is our day off, so everyone went out last night to the bar next door to relax and celebrate. It was a really good time. Joseph came out. I also made a new friend Peterson. He told me about an American Haitian that came home to visit his family and as soon as he walked in the door, he put his suitcase down and the earthquake struck. The home collapsed on him and he died. Another guy got offered $25,000 for his home on the day of the earthquake, but he wanted 30,000 so he didn't sell. His home was destroyed. He was understandably upset, but he survived.

Today we are going to the beach. I am very excited. I miss everyone in America. I am still thinking about Union Jack's buffalo wings.